I got my new yearly pass in the mail, let me know if you need any info or close up shots, it's about a 5 minute drive from work.
We are able to walk, crawl etc under it, the cockpit has a ladder so you can see inside, but the canopy is closed.
Ralph

Ralph,
Thanks for the offer... When it comes to stuff i need....

I need Good photo's with dimensions of all the Pitot, AoA, and temp probes on both sides of the nose.
and
The Arresting hook pylon.

Right now, thats all i can think of... Oh, besides the nose gear... I need dimensions of that entire thing, but i wouldn't dare ask you to do that, as its allot of work, and would probably be easier for me to drive up to the smithsonian and draw the nose gear in solidworks as i take the measurements.

Its amazing how so little takes so long to do. Trimmed and glassed the exposed foam on the exhaust nozzle plug:

Then while i waited for that to cure, I made up 13 turkey feather panels for the exhaust nozzle (the nozzle only needs 12 panels). The 13th one was a mess up that was still utilized:

Then the rivet pattern was drawn out onto that 13th panel, and then a drill bit slightly larger than my rivet tool was used to drill the location of all the rivets.

The reason for the 13th panel with all the holes, is it allows you to get the rivet pattern exactly the same over all 12 panels.
So, then each panel was taped to the "cheese grater" panel and then the rivets were hammered into the panel.

Then 5 hours later, all 12 panels have been completed:

And a close-up of one of the panels:

And a video explaining more thoroughly how i came up with the dimensions of each panel:

Looking good.
Just one observation though. I hadn't previously even noticed any irregularities on the turkey feathers before today. Now I look at it, I think you may need to roll some more of the rivet details out if you want it to be scale looking.
Looking at the pictures, I can see the marks that you are saying are rivets and I believe they are likely to be spot welding points to some internal structure on the feathers, so it may be more accurate (and easier) to use a bumpy ruler to make some subtle imprints.
Also, it looks like a slight bevel on the outer edge. are you looking at putting detail for that?Reference pic

Looking good!!! keep up the great work.
Android78 they are rivets, more than likely countersunk monel rivets.....I have never seen anything spot welded on an aircraft specialy in an area of high heat.
I am an aircraft mechanic and worked in a variety of both civilian and military aircraft, come think about it the only place I HAVE ever seen spot welds on an aircraft is on the Blackhawk's HIRSS baffles and we had to constantly inspect them because they tended to crack.

Last edited by pilotorc4; Oct 19, 2011 at 02:47 AM.
Reason: left info out

Looking good.
Just one observation though. I hadn't previously even noticed any irregularities on the turkey feathers before today. Now I look at it, I think you may need to roll some more of the rivet details out if you want it to be scale looking.
Looking at the pictures, I can see the marks that you are saying are rivets and I believe they are likely to be spot welding points to some internal structure on the feathers, so it may be more accurate (and easier) to use a bumpy ruler to make some subtle imprints.
Also, it looks like a slight bevel on the outer edge. are you looking at putting detail for that?Reference pic

The thing with working with litho plate and putting rivet/screw detail in it, is that you need it to be more pronounced than what you would typically see on the real thing. The reason for this, is when you put 3 coats of wax and coat of PVA on the plugs for molding, you lose some of that detail. Then when you put 3 coats of wax and a coat of PVA in the molds for making the parts, you lose a little bit more detail. Then when you prime the parts in the mold, then mold the parts, and do the finish work, you lose a little bit more of the detail. So while some of the area's look over-stressed, once the final product is finished, you won't notice it nearly as much.

As far as the turkey feathers, The outer skin is i believe a very high grade stainless steel or monel. The recessed edge is just to small at this scale to recreate. The full-scale edge is roughly 1/4" in width, which would make it .035" wide at 1/7th scale. Just way to small to try and recreate.

The thing with working with litho plate and putting rivet/screw detail in it, is that you need it to be more pronounced than what you would typically see on the real thing. The reason for this, is when you put 3 coats of wax and coat of PVA on the plugs for molding, you lose some of that detail. Then when you put 3 coats of wax and a coat of PVA in the molds for making the parts, you lose a little bit more detail. Then when you prime the parts in the mold, then mold the parts, and do the finish work, you lose a little bit more of the detail. So while some of the area's look over-stressed, once the final product is finished, you won't notice it nearly as much.

I'm sure you know what you are doing. It just looked a bit odd to me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by invertmast

As far as the turkey feathers, The outer skin is i believe a very high grade stainless steel or monel. The recessed edge is just to small at this scale to recreate. The full-scale edge is roughly 1/4" in width, which would make it .035" wide at 1/7th scale. Just way to small to try and recreate.

I haven't had a chance to look at one in person, but the pics I've seen look to be about 1" to 1.5" on the real thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotorc4

Android78 they are rivets, more than likely countersunk monel rivets.....I have never seen anything spot welded on an aircraft specialy in an area of high heat.

They certainly don't look like rivets though. I don't know why they wouldn't have used spot welding in that spot since it's steel. I think most of the aircraft skin is riveted instead of welded so that the panels can be removed/replaced. I think if the turkey feathers were damaged, they could be replaced by removing the whole thing, not worried about the welds.